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CFBA Tour: To Win Her Heart

Karen Witemeyer has a gift for creating characters that are at odds for each other, yet as a reader I totally root for her. Her heroines are strong women in an age that didn’t necessarily encourage that. In To Win Her Heart, she’s created another winning combination. Eden is a woman I can relate to…she loves books and feels trapped by her past. Because of that past, she has determined to never open her heart to a man..and then Levi catches her unawares. On the surface he looks like nothing more than an oversize blacksmith who can’t form words very well. But she quickly determines there is much more to the man. The problem is he’s hiding his past…for very believable reasons. And the coming eruption could keep them apart.

This was a story I could get lost in. One that compelled me to keep reading as I had to know how the story turned out. At the same time it revealed truths about the reality that our past does not have to define our present or our future. A great read.

After completing his sentence for the unintentional crime that derailed his youthful plans for fame and fortune, Levi Grant looks to start over in the town of Spencer, Texas. Spencer needs a blacksmith, a trade he learned at his father’s knee, and he needs a place where no one knows his past.

Eden Spencer has sworn off men, choosing instead to devote her time to the lending library she runs in the town her father founded. When a mountain-sized stranger walks through her door and asks to borrow a book, she’s reluctant to trust him. Yet as the mysteries of the town’s new blacksmith unfold, Eden discovers hidden depths in him that tempt her heart.

Eden believes she’s finally found a man of honor and integrity. But when the truth about Levi’s prodigal past comes to light, can this tarnished hero find a way to win back the librarian’s affections?

Karen Witemeyer is a deacon’s wife and mother of three who believes the world needs more happily-ever-afters. To that end, she combines her love of bygone eras with her passion for helping women mature in Christ to craft historical romance novels that lift the spirit and nurture the soul.

After growing up in California, Karen moved to Texas to attend Abilene Christian University where she earned bachelor and master’s degrees in Psychology. It was also there that she met and married her own Texas hero. He roped her in good, for she has lived in Texas ever since. In fact, she fell so in love with this rugged land of sweeping sunsets and enduring pioneer spirit, that she incorporates it into the pages of her novels, setting her stories in the small towns of a state that burgeoned into greatness in the mid- to late1800s.

Karen is living her dream by writing Christian historical romance novels for Bethany House. When she visited her publisher back in January of 2010, she was interviewed by the staff. If you’d like a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how she develops her story ideas and a description of her bumpy journey to publication, click here to listen to a podcast of that interview.